UOI 1 - Who We Are
An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; and what it means to be human.
Integrated Subjects:
- Mathematics - In grade 1, math will be taught through large and small group instruction, using manipulatives, relating concepts to real life experiences, and activities. Where ever possible authentic links will be made with the 6 units of inquiry over the course of the year and math concepts will be taught through these units. If authentic links cannot be made then remaining concepts will be taught as stand-alone, using an inquiry-based approach. As we move through our first unit of inquiry, students will sort, label, collect, display and compare data in a variety of forms, including pictographs and bar graphs about members of their community. Through the related concept of relationships students will model the relationships in, and between, addition and subtraction using their own methods. Grade 1 will also engage in a stand-alone mathematics unit on number and place-value. Number Talks, math games, and repeated practice using hands-on manipulatives will reinforce the children’s concept of number and place value of two-digit numbers up to 100.
- Literacy-The literacy curriculum is broken down into five strands (listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing and representing) that are focused on throughout grade 1. These strands are taught, reinforced and explored throughout all subject areas and units of inquiry through the year. Students will be assessed on all of these five strands, and will reflect on their progress in each of these areas. Throughout the year we will also focus on different text types during each UOI in order to expose the students to a variety of ways that we can express ourselves, as well as receive information. Our focus for this initial unit will be ‘explanations’, with the goal being that the children will produce a writing sample that reflects their understanding of the features that make this text type unique as well as explaining their responsibilities in their community. We will also focus on story elements, such as setting, plot and characterization, through out the unit as we will be engaging with literature frequently in this unit. At the end of the unit, students will create their own narrative story using a story map and their knowledge of story elements, which reflects their understanding of the unit’s central idea, “People have the responsibility to create communities where everyone feels a sense of belonging”.
As we begun our year in Grade 1, we started by getting to know each other and establish a sense of belonging in our own community. During the first weeks of school, we collectively defined what it means to have a successful learning community. The students began by recording their ideas on a 'T-chart' when we asked "What helps our learning community? What makes it hard in our learning community?" The students also created a Y-chart of what a successful classroom looks like, sounds like and feels like. These discussions helped us use the key concept of FORM to understand the line of inquiry, "What a successful community looks like".
From there, the students thought about what they wanted the Grade 1 learning community to be like. Students wrote down their ideas on post-it notes and then we sorted and organized the ideas as a class. The end result was our Essential Agreement of how we want our community to be and how we will behave.
Tuning In...
Part of our responsibility in creating a welcoming community, is forming connections and getting to know the people in that community. Within our own classroom learning community, we began the year by playing a few name games such as 'Name BINGO', 'I'm going on a picnic' and 'Bug in the Rug'. By setting the tone of the classroom with fun, respect, tolerance and acceptance, the students can begin to explore what a successful community looks like, and our responsibility to help others feel as if they belong.
While finding out more about each other, we spent some time interviewing our classmates to build community and help us all to feel a sense of belonging. We are starting to form some ideas of different ways we can help others feel like they belong.
Students role play what it looks like to fill someones bucket and what it looked like to dip into peoples' buckets. Ask you child what this means!
Guessing each other's special item from home to Which pictures show 'belonging' and 'not belonging'?
get to know each other better
get to know each other better
Mean Jean the Recess Queen, by Alexis O'Neill describes a girl who is rough on the outside, but hurting on the inside, due to feeling like she doesn't have a sense of belonging. The class was able to make connections from the story to the central idea, 'People have the responsibility to create communities who everyone feels a sense of belonging', by exploring how people may behave if they do not feel a sense of belonging in their community.
What does 'Belonging' mean?
We explored the concept of 'belonging' through sorting activities and role play.
Finding out...
We've had some questions about how it feels when we have a sense of belonging, and what others can do to help newcomers feel welcome in a community. We were extremely lucky to have a visit from some of the UWC Thailand scholars living at the Boarding House. The students were able to spend some time interviewing the scholars to find out if they feel a sense of belonging and what the UWC Thailand community has done to help them feel welcome.
A mystery tour around the school...
The Grade 1's had an eventful week when we exited the Power Primary building and went on a visit to some places we normally wouldn't venture to. First, we visited the MYP and DP high school building, just when classes were changing. Many of us were nervous or scared because we don't know many of the big kids. Everything was new and it made us feel quite uncomfortable. Until, that is, we saw our new friend, Anna, one of the scholars that we met the day before! Lots of us felt relieved and happy to see someone we know. When we were asked what she did to help us feel more comfortable, we reflected that she smiled, waved hello, introduced us to her friends and chatted with us. She made us feel like we belonged there, when initially most of us felt like we didn't have a sense of belonging.
Next, we headed over to Kru Siaji's class where were were very surprised to hear that he was speaking French to us for the whole lesson! The children reflected that they felt frustrated, overwhelmed, bored, confused and even angry when they didn't understand what was going on in the class. This was an important lesson for us to think about how it might feel for a student to arrive in a classroom where they are speaking a language they don't understand. Because many of us could not understand the language being spoken, we didn't feel like we belonged. The children did notice that Kru Siaji wanted us to feel a sense of belonging and that he took action to help us feel more comfortable by smiling, laughing, having fun and encouraging us.
When we finally got back into the classroom, we reflected on our feelings and recorded what made us feel that way in each situation. We were able to talk about feelings associated with having a sense of belonging and those that may arise when we don't have a sense of belonging. The roots of empathy run deep in Grade 1!
The Grade 1's had an eventful week when we exited the Power Primary building and went on a visit to some places we normally wouldn't venture to. First, we visited the MYP and DP high school building, just when classes were changing. Many of us were nervous or scared because we don't know many of the big kids. Everything was new and it made us feel quite uncomfortable. Until, that is, we saw our new friend, Anna, one of the scholars that we met the day before! Lots of us felt relieved and happy to see someone we know. When we were asked what she did to help us feel more comfortable, we reflected that she smiled, waved hello, introduced us to her friends and chatted with us. She made us feel like we belonged there, when initially most of us felt like we didn't have a sense of belonging.
Next, we headed over to Kru Siaji's class where were were very surprised to hear that he was speaking French to us for the whole lesson! The children reflected that they felt frustrated, overwhelmed, bored, confused and even angry when they didn't understand what was going on in the class. This was an important lesson for us to think about how it might feel for a student to arrive in a classroom where they are speaking a language they don't understand. Because many of us could not understand the language being spoken, we didn't feel like we belonged. The children did notice that Kru Siaji wanted us to feel a sense of belonging and that he took action to help us feel more comfortable by smiling, laughing, having fun and encouraging us.
When we finally got back into the classroom, we reflected on our feelings and recorded what made us feel that way in each situation. We were able to talk about feelings associated with having a sense of belonging and those that may arise when we don't have a sense of belonging. The roots of empathy run deep in Grade 1!
Sorting Out...
"Big Al" by Andrew Clements
This literature link brought up some interesting discussion points in Grade 1 related to central idea, "People have the responsibility to create communities where everyone feels a sense of belonging". Some of the questions raised were;
This literature link brought up some interesting discussion points in Grade 1 related to central idea, "People have the responsibility to create communities where everyone feels a sense of belonging". Some of the questions raised were;
- What happens when individuals do not help others feel like they belong in a community?
- When the other fish did not welcome Big Al, how did he feel?
- When the other fish did not welcome Big Al, how did he feel?
- What was the responsibility of the other fish to welcome Big Al in their community?
- Was it the right thing to do to welcome Big Al into the community only after he helped them solve a problem?
- Was it the right thing to do to welcome Big Al into the community only after he helped them solve a problem?
"Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister
"Rainbow Fish" is a classic tale of someone whose actions caused themselves to feel like they don't belong in a community. We used this story to practice the comprehension strategy of "Retelling the Story". The students used a "Retelling Glove" to talk about 1- The characters, 2-The Setting, 3- The Problem, 4- The Events, 5- The Solution. From there we made our own Toontastic videos retelling the story of the Rainbow Fish.
Venn Diagram
To better understand some of the feelings associated with feeling a sense of belonging and not feeling a sense of belonging, the class made a Venn diagram to sort some of the various emotions.
To better understand some of the feelings associated with feeling a sense of belonging and not feeling a sense of belonging, the class made a Venn diagram to sort some of the various emotions.
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Our Toontastic stories about feeling a sense of Belonging
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